Today I thought I would write a little about the puppets that have passed through ebay and auctions that give cause for concern.
Which puppet here do you think is hand painted by the Pelham Puppet factory in 1963 or so? It isn't difficult to guess is it, it isn't just the eyes that are painted crudely, but the ribbon is also a new ribbon, everything about the puppet on the right looks wrong.
Sometimes it isn't as easy to tell. A puppet can sell on ebay, have a good feedback left, but then turn up again with the same seller, another good feedback left, and finally ending up at auction to be sold for the third time to an unsuspecting collector or dealer. So, it will then be back on ebay possibly in the next few weeks which is why we all need to be careful if we care about originality. We know it is buyer beware, and that is how it should be, but if you are not too sure, please look at images and compare. There are plenty of images on this website if you use the search toolbar and also many images on google.
The puppet on the right is just one of several that have sold in recent months. There have been a lot of re dressed and re painted puppets sold at auction houses and then sold on ebay, this is where the buyer has not done the re painting themselves but is selling them as 'very good condition' where the puppet was never actually painted by the Pelham Puppet factory but by a keen collector. The sellers may not even know they are selling 'fakes'. The word fake is dramatic but if the items are being sold as original Pelham Puppets and they are home made by an amateur then they are inflating the price by calling them Pelham Puppets.
New collectors will always make the odd error on a purchase and regret it but that's how we learn, we all do it. If the older collectors can help in some way to minimize these mistakes, then we should try.
There are also facebook groups where open discussion takes place if there is real doubt.
The groups will only discuss this if there is real concern.
Which puppet here do you think is hand painted by the Pelham Puppet factory in 1963 or so? It isn't difficult to guess is it, it isn't just the eyes that are painted crudely, but the ribbon is also a new ribbon, everything about the puppet on the right looks wrong.
Sometimes it isn't as easy to tell. A puppet can sell on ebay, have a good feedback left, but then turn up again with the same seller, another good feedback left, and finally ending up at auction to be sold for the third time to an unsuspecting collector or dealer. So, it will then be back on ebay possibly in the next few weeks which is why we all need to be careful if we care about originality. We know it is buyer beware, and that is how it should be, but if you are not too sure, please look at images and compare. There are plenty of images on this website if you use the search toolbar and also many images on google.
The puppet on the right is just one of several that have sold in recent months. There have been a lot of re dressed and re painted puppets sold at auction houses and then sold on ebay, this is where the buyer has not done the re painting themselves but is selling them as 'very good condition' where the puppet was never actually painted by the Pelham Puppet factory but by a keen collector. The sellers may not even know they are selling 'fakes'. The word fake is dramatic but if the items are being sold as original Pelham Puppets and they are home made by an amateur then they are inflating the price by calling them Pelham Puppets.
New collectors will always make the odd error on a purchase and regret it but that's how we learn, we all do it. If the older collectors can help in some way to minimize these mistakes, then we should try.
There are also facebook groups where open discussion takes place if there is real doubt.
The groups will only discuss this if there is real concern.
